Zero Gravity Corp.
(a.k.a. Zero-G) plans to begin offering flights from Las Vegas on
April 21. The trips offer one of the only ways to experience
weightlessness without flying to space.
The company has previously launched most
of its flights from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.,
with occasional flights from other cities, including Los Angeles
and San Jose, Calif., Dallas, New York and Newark.
Zero Gs $3,500 package consists of a
short training session and a 90-minute flight aboard a specially
configured Boeing 727-200 aircraft that performs parabolic
maneuvers that create reduced gravity environments on the plane
during phases of rapid descent.
The maneuvers enable passengers to
experience a simulation of Martian gravity, one-third that of
Earth; Moon at one-sixth that of Earth; or zero-gravity. The
aircrafts interior is outfitted as a zero gravity playroom with
padded walls.
The company claims its trips provide more
time in a weightless state than suborbital flights, which are
expected to be offered by Virgin Galactic and other companies
within two years.
Since its founding in 1993 by Peter
Diamandis and astronaut Byron Lichtenberg, the company has launched
about 100 flights and sent more than 2,500 passengers on weightless
trips, according to its promotional material.
The Las Vegas flights will depart from
Signature Air Terminal at McCarran International Airport in Las
Vegas. Flights are scheduled for April 21; May 26; June 16, 17 and
30; August 4; September 1 and 2; October 6; November 10; and
December 30 and 31
For more information, visit www.gozerog.com or
call (800) 937-6480.
To contact reporter
David Cogswell, send e-mail to [email protected].